We thought we ought to stop by to see how Rhuthun/Ruthin’s first influencer is doing. That’s Rachel Ryland, by the way. She sold her care business and closed her shop. Instead, she favours Tik Tok.
- To date, Rachel has posted 142 videos on Tik Tok.
- Between them, she’s had 39,349 views
- She has 2,151 followers
- Her video with the highest views was seen by 3,651 people
Given she wasn’t even posting this time last year or even four months ago, she’s doing very well. I wish I had that much commitment, content and audience in such a short period. It took much longer for this blog to get its momentum. Rachel’s therefore doing much better than we did in our comparable early days.
But is it enough to make a living?
- Her average number of views per video is 277 (median = 243)
I think we need a bit of honesty. If this number of viewers was for videos for her own or everyone’s amusement then in such a short time this would be classed as a success. But as a commercial enterprise, we doubt that she is making money.
801 people saw Rachel’s first post. Two-thirds along the graph is a post office-related spike at 3,651 (not shown above 800). There have been a couple of minor spikes before and one since
She was once very prolific (posting a video twice a day). What seems to be telling now is that she has not posted anything for some 10 days. And the time before that she apologised for not being regular:
- ‘Sorry guys I’ve been absent from this page but I’m back’
If our own narrative is anything to go by, apologies such as Rachel’s indicate that she could be losing energy. We’ve certainly found that over the years. And when we have, we’ve made similar statements. We can empathise with her. In Rachel’s case, she may have said she was back but after that statement she only published one other video (so far).
It’s also hard to sell products that are out of the mainstream. There cannot be a huge market for powdered mushroom.
Figures correct at 28/2/24. E&OE